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Saturday, July 7, 2012

The tribunal then moved on from dealing with the Chowdhury trial, to the next item on the list which was Sayedee.

One of the defence counsel juniors stood up before the tribunal to pray for an adjournment till 2 pm as the senior counsel was stuck on the way. The Justice replied we will not allow a single moment. and this it was his duty to inform the senior lawyer to be present within 11:30 am when you realized that the the previous case was finishing. Then the junior again prayed for 30 minutes to let him arrive. The Justice refused him. Then Mr. Tajul Islam arrived in a hurry to pray for some time. The Justice again felt uncertain. They then started waiting for the counsel to arrive. At 12: 15 P.M. the senior counsel arrived and prayed apologies for the unwanted delay.

The cross examination of the investigation officer relating to Sayedee’s case continued. Questioning by the defense lawyer Mizanul Islam continuing from the previous day

Defence: Mostofa Khalil is the applicant of the GD No- 240 of Zianagar Police Station. It has been filed against Abdur Rashid Boyati.

Witness: Yes.

Defence: Did you question Mostofa Khalil?

Witness: During the investigation, I did question him but did not make him a witness.

Defence: Where is his house situated?

Witness: His house is at Hoglabunia under the Police Staton Indurkani; and his father’s name is Yousuf Khalifa.

Defence: Could you mention the distance between the houses of Prosecution Witness-4 Mostofa Hawladar and Mostofa Kholifa?

Witness: Not true. I have met him on 21st July before meeting him at 19-4-2010.

Defence: You have not recorded the statements of Mahbubul Alam Hawladar.

Witness: Not true.

Defence: When did you interrogate Mr. Mostofa Kholifa?

Witness: As I didn’t record his statement so I didn’t mention the time.

Defence: When did you question Mostofa Hawladar?

Witness: 18-8-2010. I questioned and recorded his statements. The time was 14:45 P.M. to 18:00 P.M.

Defence: What is the place for questioning?

Witness: In front of Manik Poshari’s house at Chitolia village.

Defence: Did you visit Mostofa Hawladar’s house?

Witness: No.

Defence: Did you give him a notice to be present?

Witness: No. I didn’t give him a specific notice; rather I have sent a notice to local Police Station for his appearance. But I have informed Mr. Mahbubul Haque and Mr. Manik Poshari to be present and then informed the Police Station. On 16-8-2010 I’ve informed Mr. Mahbubul Haque and Mr. Manik Poshari; over telephone.

Defence: Whether Mostofa Hawladar and Mostofa Kholifa is the same person?Witness: No.

Defence: Who is the complainant of GD no- 1010 and 1011; dated- 24-11-2010 of Pirojpur Police Station?

Witness: Mr. Abdul Kader is the complainant. And Ajmol Pasa and Mojammel are the accused. Mr. Abdul Kader is not the witness in this case.

Defence: Who is the complainant of GD no- 1367 and 1011; dated- 29-05-2010 of Pirojpur Police Station?

Defence: Mr. Mostofa Hawladar is the complainant and Mr. Ajmol Pasha and Abdur Rashid Boyati are the accused of the GD no- 685; dated- 22-11-2010 of Zianagar Police Station?

Witness: Yes

Adjournment for lunch

Defence: Did you tell us whether the GD no. 1 to 5 has been dismissed by the Magistrate because of getting no allegation.

Witness: I do not know.

Defence: Did you inform Mr. Abdul Hanan (Inspector general of Investigation agency) about these GDs.

Witness: Yes, I have informed.

Defence: When did you inform him?

Witness: On 16.01.2011.

Defence: Before 16.01.2011, how many statements of witnesses were recorded by you?

Witness: Statement of everyone was recorded before that time.

Defence: There are two persons (Abdul Kader and Mustafa Khalifa) who are not witness of this case, still you included them in the threatened list witness.

Witness: Yes, because when I interviewed them, I was not sure that I would not include them as witness.

Defence: That means, you did not record their statement having their relation with this case.

Witness: Yes.

Defence: Do you know Mustafa Sayedee is a brother of Delwer Hossain Saydee?

Witness: Yes, I have heard.

Defence: Did you get any GD which was filed against Mustafa Saydee?

Witness: No, I did not.

Defence: Was any witness obstructed to go Hasina Academy (a place where witness gave their deposition).

Witness: It is not true. I did not record any statement at Hasina Academy.

Defence: You intentionally filed this GD.

Witness: It is not true.

At around this point there was an interaction between the tribunal and the defence:

The chairman said that they would now use guillotine to restrict cross examination on these 'general diaries' GDs. These are irrelevant.

The defence lawyer argued that the Prosecution has used these GDs earlier to oppose our bail applications. They wanted to show that Sayedee’s people were threatening the PWs. But we want to show that these GDs re false. This shows the malafide intention behind this proceeding aginst Sayedee. It will affect the credibility of the IO (PW 28).

The chairman responded by saying that this did not however relate to any events of 1971. You cannot ask question on those GDs. We will use guillotine.

The defence lawyer said that if the tribunal had used this guillotine at the time of examination in chief of the IO then my cross examination would have been shorter. You allowed the invsetigation officer to exhibit these documents. Now you are saying that these are irrelevant.

The chairman responded that this is first case in this Tribunal and we are learning every day.

Defence: When did you go to Pirojpur to prepare a map of Pirojpur mass-grave and killing field?

Witness: On 2.02.2011.

Defence: To whom did you gave the responsibility to prepare Map of GIS department?

Witness: The responsibility was given to Mr. Khaled Hossain geographical officer, Naznin and nazma graphics Specialist under the leadership of Ahsan Habib of GIS (geographical Information system) department of LGED (local government engineering department).

Defence: Would you please tell us the date when they handed over the Map to you?

Witness: On 3.05.11, I went there and took it in my possession.

Defence: Did you hand it (Map) over to the Prosecution for producing before the Tribunal?

Witness: Yes, I have given these separately.

Defence: You did not produce it before the Tribunal before producing witness before the Tribunal.

Witness: It is not true.

Defence: Is there any information written at this map that it is prepared by Mr. Khaled Hossain geographical officer, Naznin and nazma graphics Sapecialist under the leadership of Ahsan Habib

Witness: No.

Defence: Is this map prepared by their hand or it is a copy of the orginial?

Witness: Basically it is a copy of an original, they gave me the soft copy and I printed it out.

Defence: Is there is any scale of this map?

Witness: No, scale is not maintained, It has been informed from the GIS (geographical Information system) department of LGED (local government engineering department) that they followed a definite shape and in that case it is not possible to follow any scale.

Defence: Do you have any idea upon the scale?

Witness: No, I did not.

Defence: Did you include them as witness?

Witness: No.

Defence: There is some statements in this map. Would you please tell us who give this statement?

Witness: I have given this statement.

Defence: Without the description of serial no. A and B at this map. There are names of 27 other places at this map.

Witness: Yes.

Defence: Did you give legend for marking the sign at this map?

Witness: No, it was not possible.

Defence: Did you see any other map of any other districts which is not prepared by the LGED?

Witness: No.

Defence: There are 23 pictures of Mass-grave and killing field at this map. My question is did you prepare this?

Witness: Yes.

Defence: Would you please tell us when you take the picture of serial no. 1, 2, 5, 26, 27?

Witness: Serial no. 1 and 2 was taken on 20. 09. 10, serial no. 5 was taken on 26. 01.11. and serial no. 27 was taken on 18.08.10.

Defence: Without serial no. 1, 2, 5, 26, 17 all other places are not related with this case?

Witness:Yes.

Defence: In serial no.26, it is a picture of Parerhaat killing field.

Witness: Yes.

Defence: Parerhaat is a union of Zianagar.

Witness: Yes.

Defence: You have sought a map of Zianagar Upazilla including listing killing fields and list martyrs during the Liberation War whose report no is 8.6. 8. 0. 1. 8. 15. 00. 111. 2010. 553 dated 27.08.10 from the district administrator of Pirojpur.

Witness: Yes, for the sake of investigation I have collected information all over the country.

About Me

This is a personal blog, and any views are solely mine. I am a Bangladesh based journalist who has since August 2010 worked as Editor, Special Reports for the Bangladesh national newspaper, New Age (see my other blog on the International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh: http://bangladeshwarcrimes.blogspot.com) Prior to working at New Age, between March and September 2010, I worked as a senior editor and reporter at the news website, bdnews24.com and before that I spent seven months at the Bangladesh newspaper, the Daily Star, setting up a small investigations unit. Between 2000 and 2009, I was the Executive Director of the Centre for Corporate Accountability, a UK based not-for-profit organisation concerned with workplace safety. Before that, I worked as a Television journalist and producer for about seven years working mainly for the television production company, Twenty Twenty Television in London. In 1995, I was involved in making the Royal Television Society award winning Channel Four documentary, the 'War Crimes File', a film about war crimes allegedly committed by three men during the 1971 War of Indpendence. I have lived in Dhaka since 2003.